1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is that of internal combustion engines and more particularly charged-forming devices employing a heating means to heat the fuel mixture by means of the heated air from the exhaust of the engine.
2. Prior Art
The prior art is replete with devices for attachment to or incorporation in the system of an internal combustion engine from the mixing of the fuel in the carburetor to the delivery of the fuel mixture into the combustion chamber. Such prior art includes heat exchangers and means for heating the air prior to introduction into the carburetor as well as heating the fuel mixture delivered from the carburetor prior to delivery into the combustion chamber. One major problem is the complexity and sensitivity inherent in such devices whereby the modification of the engine is complicated and the proper adjustment is critical so that it is necessary to devote constant attention to make sure that the necessary factors are correct such as the correct heat of the fuel mixture so as not to cause air and vapor locks in the system, and also not to cause premature explosion and such unwanted conditions known as dieseling.
The most common method used today is the carburetor which has proven to be quite reliable over the past years but is very inefficient. The carburetor injects liquid gasoline into the inlet air stream. Due to the velocity of the air gasoline mixture, only a small amount of the liquid has time to gas (gasoline in a liquid state will not burn), therefore only the small amount of fuel that gases is used to produce power. The excessive portion of the fuel aids in cooling valves, pistons etc., as it enters the cylinder, however, it has several disadvantages.
1. A portion of the liquid is forced downward, on compression stroke, past the compression ring; this fuel tends to wash away the lubricant from the cylinder walls, causing cylinder wall and piston ring wear.
2. The remainder of the unburnable substance begins to gas and burn after ignition takes place. Only the fuel that burns at time of ignition produces power; all additional fuel is waste. After ignition the temperature increases causing the remainder of the ungassed fuel to gas and continue to gas through the exhaust manifold.
The fuel air charge at the time of ignition burns at a rate of 100 ft. per second across the face of the piston. The pressure on top of the piston at T.D.C. of the compression stroke is approximately 1000 P.S.I. The pressure drops to about 60 P.S.I. at 120 degrees of crankshaft travel. The secondary burn (burn after ignition) has no bearing on the power stroke in relation to power. However, there is 360 degrees plus in relation to crankshaft travel of wasted fuel and additional heat. There has been many attempts in devising ways to burn all the fuel at the point of ignition, even after the gases leave the engine. Before this can be accomplished the fuel must be in a burnable condition. The only way to accomplish this is to physically break down the chemical make-up of the gasoline, mixing the proper amount of burnable gas with the proper amount of air and introducing it into the combustion chamber. This will eliminate 360 degrees of fire in the engine, in relation to crankshaft travel. With the present carburetor there is fire in the engine 360 degrees out of 720 degrees and that is over half the life of the engine. The present invention reduces the fire in the engine to 6 degrees. This saves the fuel it takes to produce the burn through the last 360 degrees plus the burn in the exhaust system, which reduces pollution.
3. Pollution is another disadvantage of the old method. With the old method several devices have been used with the carburetor to try to clean up the exhaust.
Another device is the air pump which is an engine driven pump that pumps air into the exhaust manifold to continue to burn the unburned gases. The air burns up before the gas. It takes from three to five horsepower to turn the pump depending upon the speed which requires more fuel for the engine, therefore causing more pollution. Thus the question whether the pump helps the pollution problem enough to compensate for the additional fuel it takes to run it. With the present invention this device would not be necessary.
The catalytic converter is another device used on automobiles today. This device magnifies the exhaust heat to an extremely high temperature to attempt to destroy or filter out pollutants in the exhaust. This high temperature has proven to be dangerous. For example, at a golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. an automobile equipped with a converter, parked on a grassy area, caused a fire that destroyed it and three other nearby cars, due to the fact that the catalytic device was so hot the heat started a fire on the grass underneath the car. Also, some service stations in the West will not allow cars equipped with the device to come near their pumps due to the dangerous high temperature.
The most logical way of cleaning up the exhaust is not to contaminate it in the first place. This invention increases thermal efficiency of the engine, this increased gas mileage. When this is accomplished, the exhaust pollution is decreased to a minimum, without the use of costly added gadgets.
Any less fuel, using a carburetor, injected into the engine other than a 15:1 ration would be a lean mixture. A lean mixture is hotter than a rich mixture, therefore heat damage would occur. Liquid gasoline gasses in proportion to volume. In other words, the larger the volume used the more gas is released by the same token, less volume used, the less gas is released.
This invention physically breaks down the chemical make-up of gasoline. Only a 100 percent burnable substance enters the combustion chamber. This is by no means a lean mixture. The oncoming gas from a carburetor aids in cooling the cylinder assembly. The gas from this invention is far lower in temperature than that of the carburetor, more than adequate to cool the cylinders, plus the fact that there is no after burn.
The present system is believed to be an acceptable modification of the engine which is easily installed by means of an adapter which also forms part of the fuel mixture intake housing and chamber and a heat exchanger, filtration system which is intended to improve performance without complex maintenance.